Tech

Trevor Jacob, a YouTube creator and former Olympic snowboarding athlete, was sentenced to six months in federal prison for “obstructing a federal investigation” by “deliberately destroying the wreckage of an airplane that he intentionally crashed in Santa Barbara County to gain online views,” prosecutors said. Jacob, 30, of Lompoc, Calif., had pleaded guilty on June
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Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is teaming with AI Singapore and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research to launch the S$70 million ($52.3 million) National Multimodal LLM Program (NMLP). The initiative, funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation, will develop the country’s research and engineering capabilities in multi-modal large language (LLM) models. It will
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Director Lukas Dhont is the new guest curator for Galerie, Indian Paintbrush’s digital film club. Dhont, whose 2022 coming-of-age film “Close” was nominated for best international feature, names 18 films that influenced him the most for Galerie members. Among the entries is the 1975 documentary “Grey Gardens.” “A teacher in film school showed us ‘Grey
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Verizon is making its latest aggressive push to bundle up streaming packages — offering ad-supported versions of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max for $10 per month to wireless subscribers on unlimited plans. That’s about a 40% discount on the services compared with the $17/month it would cost to purchase them separately. Under such reseller
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Spotify is laying off 17% of its global workforce in order to cut costs, CEO Daniel Ek said on Monday. According to the Financial Times, Ek made the announcement in an internal memo sent to staff. “I recognize this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions,” Ek wrote in the memo.
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In its never-ending effort to try to reach younger news consumers, CNN has launched CNN Shorts — a new vertical video player on its website designed for smartphones. CNN already produces vertical-video news briefs for platforms including TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Now it sees a growing opportunity for CNN Shorts on its owned-and-operated
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Blac Chyna was among the highest earners on OnlyFans, reportedly making millions per month on the adult-content-friendly creator subscription platform. But the model, rapper, TV personality and influencer, whose real name is Angela White, quit OnlyFans earlier this year — saying at the time that it was a “dead end” for her and that she
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Elon Musk this week angrily told big advertisers like Disney and Apple who have halted spending on X/Twitter to “go fuck yourself.” Bill Ackman, head of investment holding company Pershing Square Holdings, believes Musk has a point — opining that large marketers employ a double standard in reacting to Musk’s combative rhetoric and his “free
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New rounds of layoffs took place Thursday at Condé Nast and Vox Media, the latest cutbacks in the publishing sector as companies look to tighten their belts. The job cuts at Condé Nast come after the company said earlier this month that it will lay off upwards of 300 employees, representing 5% of total headcount,
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Tubi, Fox Corp.’s ad-supported video-on-demand service, is eyeing a bigger international footprint: The streamer has tapped David Salmon, former CTO of Endeavor Streaming, as executive VP and managing director of international. Salmon, based in the U.K., will report to Tubi CEO Anjali Sud, the ex-chief exec of Vimeo who started at the streamer in September.
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A visibly irate Elon Musk said advertisers who pulled spending from X/Twitter, following his post that endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory, were trying to “blackmail” the company and threatened to drive it into bankruptcy. Musk, currently the world’s wealthiest individual, had a message to big advertisers including Disney that halted spending on his social network:
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Jezebel is getting resurrected, under new management. Three weeks ago, the former owner of the feminist news and opinion site, private-equity backed G/O Media, announced it was shuttering Jezebel — and laying off the staff — after failing to find a buyer. Now Paste Magazine, an Atlanta-based entertainment and culture publication, has snapped up Jezebel,
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NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service is flying into Instacart‘s virtual grocery cart. The companies announced a new deal that makes Peacock Premium available to all subscribers of Instacart+ in the U.S. at no additional cost. Instacart+, which provides unlimited free delivery on orders of more than $35 and other perks, costs $99/year or $9.99/month. NBCU wouldn’t
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Controversial podcaster Joe Rogan reliably generates a large and bro-heavy audience for Spotify. But will his show remain exclusively available on Spotify? “The Joe Rogan Experience,” exclusive to Spotify under a 2020 deal, again clocked in with the most popular show on the platform for 2023. The company revealed the top 25 rankings for the
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Alex Cooper and Matt Kaplan have tapped Mina Lefevre as the chief content officer of Television of their newly formed media company, Trending. Lefevre will report to Kaplan and oversee creative, and strategic oversight for the company (ACE Entertainment, The Unwell Network and Call Her Daddy) in scripted and unscripted. “I am thrilled to be
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Bytedance, the unlisted Chinese tech giant that owns TikTok, is poised to slash most of its games operations, including Nuverse, which publishes ‘Marvel Snap.’ “We regularly review our businesses and make adjustments to center on long-term strategic growth areas,” a ByteDance representative said in a statement by a Bytedance spokesman that was sent to Variety.
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